A quick introduction to the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan program

GUIDE: Program Guide

DIFFICULTY: Easy

TIME TO READ: 3 minutes

POSTED: February 16, 2018

UPDATED: October 4, 2018

LOYALTY PROGRAMS: Alaska Air Mileage Plan

Whilst Alaska’s frequent flyer program remains a favourite of advanced points enthusiasts, this policy change makes it harder to secure premium cabin redemptions within Asia on three quality airlines.

New policy

As of 8 February 2018, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan no longer offers the opportunity to redeem miles for travel on Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines or Hainan Airlines in any class within 72 hours of departure on flights within Asia—Alaska has reversed its previous decision to apply this to flights in all regions. This is likely to be due to the strong reaction to the change from the frequent flyer community.

For those wanting to travel in Cathay Pacific (or Japan Airlines) Business Class, this change is not too much of a problem, as those seats tend to be available booking further out.

Cathay Pacific Business Class

However, for Cathay Pacific First Class redemptions, there is usually just one seat released for redemption further out (so be quick on securing that one!) and the rest of the six-seat cabin that is unsold will be made available just a couple of days prior to departure, which is exactly when Alaska is now prohibiting redemptions on intra-Asia flights.

Cathay Pacific First Class has one of the widest seats and most comfortable beds in the air!

If you are a solo traveller and can secure the one First Class award seat ahead of time, then this won’t affect you too much. However, if you want to travel last-minute and/or have booked the solo seat ahead of time and are holding out for a second seat for a travel companion, then this will no longer be possible through Alaska for flights within Asia.

You may consider another program like Asia Miles, Qantas or AAdvantage to increase your chances of booking a First Class seat, which is detailed further in the overview below.

Remember, this now only applies to intra-Asia flights on Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines and Hainan Airlines, not on flights in all regions. That means you may want to focus your efforts on flying Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines First Class to/from North America and Europe.

A general overview of the program

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan is a quirky, but useful outsider program for Australian frequent flyers to consider.

It is probably the best of any of the US airlines and offers great redemption rates on award travel partners such as Qantas, Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines, as well as free stopovers.

Alaska Airlines partners across traditional airline alliances with other airlines in a model similar to Virgin Australia. Qantas, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, American Airlines, Emirates and Fiji Airways are some of Alaska’s key partners with whom you are able to earn and redeem Mileage Plan miles.

The other reason to be aware of Mileage Plan is their relatively frequent (3-6 times per year) mileage purchase promotions. These will allow you to buy Mileage Plan miles at a discount or receiving a bonus to redeem on one of those partners, and it is possible to get Business or First class flights using miles for just a couple of thousand dollars.

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Who wrote this
guide?

Matt is a Content Producer for Point Hacks, joining the team in 2016. Originally from Sydney, he won the green card lottery and now bases himself in the US for half the year and abroad for the other half. His favourite destinations so far have been Japan, Iran, Colombia, Israel and South Africa, and his top flight experiences in Cathay Pacific First, SWISS Business and Singapore Airlines Economy Class.

Takes and fuel surcharges for redemptions through US frequent flyer programs like Alaska Airlines are generally lower than through Qantas.

For example, I’m seeing a co-payment of ~$150 AUD for a one-way Business Class award flight on Cathay Pacific from Melbourne to Hong Kong versus ~$35 AUD for Qantas Business Class between Sydney and Melbourne. Given that the Hong Kong flight is over 6x the length of the domestic flight, the co-payment is proportionately lower.

Comparing apples to apples is the Alaska miles programme significantly better for redemptions than QF? If using the above example and Qantas were offering double ff points as well – would 24800 points get us anywhere? A quick look at the qf calculator suggests we would need 60k points for mel-hkg compared to cathay pacific’s 30k. That’s a big difference even without the double miles promotion! What am I missing here? Higher taxes? Harder to reach status? Availability? How many qf points would we need for the same cathay redemption?

Alaska just all out have a cheaper redemption table than Qantas. Though with Qantas, you can book CX awards online, whereas with Alaska, you need to call. But you should (and from my own experience) be able to access the same seats. The same redemption would cost 65,000 Qantas Points. As Matt as explained in one of his responses above, the taxes are also proportionally cheaper.